Andre

Pallante

There was zero chance of this one ever getting going based on the forecast at Busch Stadium on Tuesday night. It’ll be made up as a doubleheader on July 7. Tuesday’s original starters — Brandon Sproat and Andre Pallante — will presumably be pushed back to take the ball on Wednesday instead.

This was the good version of Pallante. His slider forced seven swings-and-misses as he dotted in beautifully low and below the zone and played it well off his sinker for the righties and fastball for the lefties. He also got the Pirates to hit into lots of harmless contact, whether it was lazy pop-ups or ground balls. He’ll take a 3.73 ERA into his next start against the Brewers.

The right-hander uncharacteristically piled up eight strikeouts in the contest while walking three opposing batters. The Mariners scratched out single runs against him in the second and fourth innings, then Josh Naylor clubbed a go-ahead solo homer in the sixth that proved to be the difference in the ballgame. Pallante generated 12 swings and misses on 90 pitches on the night, registering an elite CSW of 38 percent. He’ll see if that swing-and-miss stuff can carry over to Wednesday’s matchup against Paul Skenes and the Pirates in Pittsburgh.

He struck out five and walked three. Pallante has a 2-1 record and a respectable 4.05 ERA, but his 12/11 K/BB in 20 innings is hideous and he’s not such a strong groundball pitcher than he can survive that kind of thing for long. He’ll face the Mariners next week.

Inducing grounders is the name of the game for Pallante, but the Red Sox got the ball into the air against him today and collected eight hits on liners or flies. After two successful outings to begin the year, Pallante is now 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA through three starts. He’ll face the Astros next weekend, but it might be best for the Cardinals if a younger pitcher overtakes him in the rotation sometime in the coming months.

Pallante also walked four and struck out two while throwing 61 percent of his pitches for strikes. His velocity was down across the board, including 1.2 miles per hour on his fastball. He had three whiffs on his slider but just a 15 percent whiff rate overall in an outing that wasn’t overly impressive. We likely wouldn’t start him on Sunday against the Red Sox.

Pallante allowed all three hits over the first five innings before Gordon Graceffo, Ryne Stanek, JoJo Romero and Riley O’Brien finished things up. Pallante struck out only three, which is pretty much par for the course for him, but he got nine outs on the ground. The Cardinals would take five solid innings every time out from him, at least until they cashed him in before the trade deadline. He’ll next face the Nationals on Monday.

Pallante’s rotation spot has to be pretty much locked up at this point, as he’s sporting a 2.57 ERA through 14 innings. He doesn’t offer any fantasy potential at all, but the Cardinals would be just fine with 170 innings of anything close to a league-average ERA.

Pallante struck out three and allowed just one hard-hit ball to the 16 batters he faced. He might eventually get overtaken in the Cardinals rotation, but with his 3.00 ERA in three outings this spring, he’s probably doing enough to keep his spot initially.

Pallante struck out two and had a successful outing even though his velocity is down by about two mph at the moment. He’s certain to be a part of the Cardinals’ rotation to begin the year, but he has a lot to prove after finishing 6-15 with a 5.31 ERA last year.